32mm @ f/1.4 + CPL - Birds & Bees (PICS)

Photato wrote:

Marco Nero wrote:

Photato wrote:

Marco Nero wrote:

Photato wrote:

The sharpness looks good but unfortunately the Bokeh is some shots looks messy, like in the first sample and some others.

Local gardens on my street. I was able to blow the background out much more than this by getting closer to the flower ...but this shot was visually more interesting to me.

I think it has to do with this lens not having rounded blades but instead a 7 blade diaphragm, an heptagon aperture. Similar to EF- M-22mm lens 7 blades.
Ironically, some smartphones have better bokeh than this given the perfectly rounded edge aperture (a simple metal ring with no moving parts).

The bokeh produced by modern smart-phones (eg iPhone7+) is completely artificial. It's generated inside the camera's processor and they can even feed real-time fake-DOF to the display prior to the images being taken.

I'm talking about the optical DoF that shows in in extreme close ups with small sensors. Canon has also P&S with fixed diaphragms and perfectly rounded iris so the bokeh in the rare occasions that it shows is really silky smooth.

I guess for the intended market this 32mm lens is not bad, every other aspects like vignetting, sharpness and chromatic aberrations seem to be very good though.

But the bokeh is meh. IMO

I've bought quite a number of my EF lenses for their bokeh, including the 24L, 50L, 85L, 100L, 135L and 100-400L II lenses from the EF family. These lenses all excel with their ability to generate bokeh and to present it in a predictable and pleasing manner.

I guess you mean shallow DoF, bokeh is the "quality" of the out of focus areas.

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I think the bokeh from this lens (EF 32mm f/1.4 STM) is excellent for the focal length and aperture. I would have preferred a 9-blade iris like the EF lenses have... but the aperture is still f/1.4 and it's pretty darned sharp even when wide open. It's presenting precisely the amount of bokeh that we predicted this lens would produce. But that's not the reason to consider buying or using this lens... the usefulness in very low light is where it comes alive. This is a bright lens. It was designed to be versatile in lowlight and the bokeh (which I find to be 'just right' for this lens) is simply a beneficial side-effect from the lens design and aperture range. I presume you'll be skipping this lens if you don't like it.

Don't get me wrong, it is a bright high quality lens which only fault I see is the bokeh, not bad but no silky smooth.
I wonder how it stack against the EF 35mm IS since the price is roughly the same and unlike the 32mm it has OIS and is compatible with the R mount.

I have both (and had the original 35 F1.4L). I love the 35 F2 IS on my 7DII, and have shot two bar mitzvahs with it, with very pleasing results. I have used the 35 on my M and M6, and so didn't really need the 32, but I really like the smaller form factor. I would say the 32 is even sharper than the 35, which is itself a terrific performer. Although I would also prefer the 32 to have IS, I wouldn't want it to be much bigger and heavier than it is. I don't know whether the addition of IS would have added a lot to the weight or size, but it seems likely that it would. The 35 F2 IS is certainly a lot bigger and heavier than the earlier 35 F2. Because I use the 35, and expect to use the 32, a lot for people shots, IS is less important to me. People move a lot, even when they are trying to keep still. I like to keep the shutter speed up to at least 1/100, and often faster, for people. At this focal length, and for my uses, the extra stop of the 32 F1.4 is far more useful than the IS of the 35 F2. As for bokeh, that's clearly highly subjective. For what it's worth, from what I've seen of the bokeh in my shots, and Marco's, and the others posted here, I don't find it meh at all. I think it's about as pleasing as you can expect from this focal length. It's certainly at least as good as what I remember getting from my 35 F1.4L. That's not scientific, of course. As I said, judgments about bokeh quality are highly subjective.